August 20-September 2, 2015 Current Events Lesson Plan
Current Event: The Big Easy, 10 Years On
August 29, 2015, marks the 10th anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. On that day, Katrina’s wind gusts reached up to 125 miles (200 kilometers) per hour as the storm hit several Gulf Coast communities. The hurricane killed about 1,800 people; most of the dead were from New Orleans. In New Orleans, the storm surge moved rapidly ashore, breaching levees and flooding low-lying neighborhoods. Ten years later, the city has miles of new and reinforced levees and clear signs of rebirth and stagnation, joy and despair. Evaluation of the region’s progress falls largely along class and income lines, with poor blacks in the city and poor whites from the bordering parishes most likely to say that the area’s much reported-upon recovery has been overblown. Wealthier citizens, many of whom lived in the French Quarter and other neighborhoods on higher ground, suffered less and tend to have a sunnier picture of the region’s recovery. Prior to Katrina’s landfall, more than two-thirds of the city claimed African American heritage. Tens of thousands of blacks fled New Orleans during pre- and post-storm evacuations, however, and many settled permanently in other locales. Today, blacks still make up the majority of the city’s population, though whites and Hispanics represent increasing shares of the city’s ethnic mix.
Objective:
A hurricane is a powerful, swirling storm that causes great damage through fierce winds, torrential rain, flooding, and huge waves crashing ashore. The winds of a hurricane swirl around a calm central zone called the eye. The eye usually measures 10 to 40 miles (16 to 64 kilometers) in diameter and is usually free of rain and large clouds. A band of tall clouds called the eyewall surrounds the eye. The strongest winds occur in and under the eyewall. These winds can reach nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) per hour. Hurricanes are most common during the summer and early fall. The term hurricane is actually one of several regional names used to describe a type of storm known as a tropical cyclone. Approximately 90 hurricanes and other tropical cyclones occur in a year throughout the world. The Behind the Headlines news story and related World Book articles explore hurricanes and other natural disasters.
Words to know:
Discussion Topics:
1. Ask your students what they know about New Orleans. (Students might say that New Orleans is the largest city in Louisiana, the city is famous for its annual Mardi Gras celebration, the city is often called the Crescent City, the city lies along the Mississippi River, the city helped give birth to jazz in the early 1900’s, battles during both the War of 1812 and the American Civil War were fought in the city.)
2. Ask your students to name natural disasters, besides Hurricane Katrina, since 2000. (Students might say the tsunami of 2004, Cyclone Nargis [2008], Haitian earthquake [2010], Japanese earthquake and tsunami [2011], Hurricane Sandy [2012], Typhoon Haiyan [2013].)
3. Ask your students to debate, “Schools should be required to teach students how to prepare for various natural disasters.”
4. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters are common throughout the world. Ask your students which natural disaster they think is the most dangerous.
5. Ask your students to use World Book’s Timelines feature to view or add to the Major Disasters timeline.